Guys, as all of you know for some "strange" reason my PC-3000 adaptors (IDE-SATA and IDE 2.5) have all the IDE pins on the IDE 3.5 side, meaning that one can't use a "protected" UDMA cable with them.

OLD PCI card (PC-3000) does have the extra middle pin as well meaning that one is forced to use VERY OLD IDE RIBBON CABLES (NOT Ultra DMA) with all the connector squares open (without the middle one closed as "protected" for modern cables).

This wouldn't be a BIG issue for HRT as my HRT cards that i use ALL THE TIME for EVERYTHING HDD related don't have the extra pin so any modern IDE ribbon cable cab be fitted intro it, the problem is that I'M USING the PC-3000 ADAPTORS (SATA-IDE and IDE 2.5) to plug the drives to the HRT card.

So here is the problem i keep the side of the cable ALLWAYS connected to the HRT card but the other side of the cable i keep switching all the time from drive to drive (if IDE) or from the adaptors. While i keep the SATA adaptor plugged because modern drives are SATA sometimes i switch to 2.5 IDE to mount my old drives as system drives ....

OK, In other words because "it's handy" for me to have 2.5 IDE drives that i can plug with a simple USB cable without having to power them on with external power supply to move stuff that is not importnat like movies and music i do find it to be more handy to get older IDE drives that i can fit intro a USB to IDE cable and plug just that on the TV SET or any other computer. If i were to use SATA 2.5 i would had to use power as well.

Ok, because of that i do have SEVERAL 2.5 IDE drives and to erase them or check if they are still ok or even to copy files to them i ALLWAYS plug them on the HRT card with the PC-3000 2.5 adaptor anbd mount them as system drive with HRT.

Long story made short because of that i switch adaptors and drives several times on the end of the ribbon cable that connects to the adaptors and while the adaptors are quite resistent (i'm still using the first set and did never aquire any extra ones despite they are quite cheap and easy to find even on ebay) and the card plug is very resistent as well the cables do get damaged ALLOT on the place where i plug te adaptors.

I do use the 2 plastic "levers" on the PC-3000 adaptors and on the HRT card to REMOVE the cable (i try not to pull the cable itself) but even so i end up damaging those cables often and here where i live they are not easy to find.

So ... where do you guys buy old IDE cables that are in new condition ?

What i do is to get them 2nd hand from a guy that have a computer shop but those are removed from very old systems and most of the time they are in a very bad condition and get damaged shortly.

Also everytime i replace the cable i do run a test by copy files to the drive using that cable, return them back and compare checksums to make sure there aren't any problem. So i don't like to switch cables but they keep damaging on the connector side and it's impossible to find those cables as "new" on shops as all that they have is UDMA cables with protection that can't be used on PC-3000 adaptors....

Any suggestion apart from drilling a hole on the new UDMA cables ? Do you guys know if there are PC-3000 adaptors without the middle pin ? I don't see and easy way to remove the pin from the adaptors without damaging the plastic on them as well ....

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